


15_minute_fic Word #209: Book End to the episode "Instinct" a.k.a. The Pterosaur Blues

by koalathebear



Category: Terra Nova (TV)
Genre: Community: 15_minute_fic, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 14:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I always wondered what happened to poor Mark at the end of "Instinct". They never told us. In this bookend, Lieutenant Washington gives Mark a hard time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	15_minute_fic Word #209: Book End to the episode "Instinct" a.k.a. The Pterosaur Blues

"Good morning, Reynolds," Wash greeted him sardonically. "How kind of you to finally make an appearance."

Reynolds stopped dead in the doorway of barracks, steeling himself for what was to come.

"Good morning, lieutenant," he said courteously, turning around slowly to face his commanding officer.

"So, I understand from Jenkins that there was a _mix-up_ in the roster that I prepared yesterday," she remarked, walking around the young security officer, missing nothing from his tousled hair, to the faint bruising on his forehead and the embarrassed expression on his face.

"Permission to neither confirm nor deny, ma'am," Reynolds muttered.

"Permission denied," Wash said coming to a halt before him, her lips slightly pursed as she stared him straight in the eye. "Do you think that the rosters that I take such time and care to prepare are there for your convenience? To be disregarded when you feel like trying to impress that Shannon girl you were making eyes at during yesterday's survival training?"

"Maddy." he corrected her.

Washington cocked her head. "So were you successful, private?" she asked him curiously. "Was the clever Miss Maddy Shannon as impressed with your bravery and skill as you were with her directional instincts in class?"

Reynolds winced.

"No ma'am, I was knocked over by a pterosaur that infiltrated the house which then made me hit my head. I was then unconscious for most of the night. To be perfectly frank, it was the Shannons and Skye Tate who ended up saving _my_ life," Reynolds admitted truthfully.

Alicia Washington's lips twitched uncontrollably and she pressed them together hard in an attempt to stop herself bursting out laughing.

"Lieutenant, please don't laugh at me," Mark begged her. "Humiliated doesn't even come close to describing how I feel right now." He had woken up with a pounding headache, staring up into Maddy's pale, anxious face looking down at her. When she had described what had happened, he had looked around to make sure that all the pterosaurs were gone and then, to put it bluntly – he had bolted, barely hearing Maddy asking: "Are you sure you're ok, Mark? Mark! Come back!"

"The course of true love never did run smooth, Reynolds," Washington commented. "Have you gone to the infirmary to get your head checked out?"

"No ma'am, I'm fine," he told her.

"You could be concussed. Make sure you go to the infirmary after you tidy yourself up – that's an order and not one you're allowed to disregard the way you disregarded my roster."

"No ma'am." he said obediently, eyes staring straight ahead.

"Have you tried just asking her out?" Washington asked him bluntly. "I'm a big fan of the direct approach, myself."

Reynolds kept staring straight ahead. "No ma'am. Commander Taylor says that there is a protocol that we must follow. First of all, I must declare my intentions and seek her permission to court her. Then, with her parents' consent, I may court her within the family home. Following that, we may go on a planned event or activity outside of the home that may please her."

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Soldier – you do know that the commander was pulling your leg when he told you that, don't you?"

"No ma'am, Commander Taylor would never do something like that," Reynolds said earnestly, a little horrified at the suggestion.

Washington's lips twitched. "So have you started your ingenius plan of action yet, Reynolds?"

"Not yet ma'am," he told her.

"Well ... let me know how that goes for you," she told him. "Dismissed," she told him, affection and amusement in her eyes as he went away to get changed.

***

"I can't believe you'd tease the poor boy like that," Washington reproached Taylor later that day.

"Me?" Taylor demanded, looking mildly amused. "Who's the cruel woman who's started making the soldiers sing some song called the Pterosaur Blues during drill time?"

"What doesn't kill him will toughen him up," Washington said airily. "He's a good kid – **tenacious** as hell - just has a lot to learn about women.

"As do we all," Taylor said ruefully. "Sometimes I think I know more about dinosaurs than I do about the workings of the female mind."

Taylor spluttered in outrage when Washington agreed with him.

**end**


End file.
